What is pain? Part II

Jennifer pointed out that pain is in the brain. Our receptor sensory nerves detect the area that is wounded or needed attention and send a message to the brain, which interpret it as pain. Mark and Lili pointed out that pain is in our mind.

Very interestingly, under meditation, if we observe pain, there are 2 types of pain as discussed above. One is physical pain and the other is mental pain. Our brain detects the physical pain but it is our mind that holds on to this pain mentally.

As Mark pointed out, different people seem to have a different tolerant level to pain. What makes these differences is the level of control we have mentally. How we view pain can greatly alter our tolerant to pain.

I am not very good at meditation, however I have tried it a couple of times to look at pain. I tried to concentrate at my pain area, and strangely the pain disappears and all I can feel are pulses on my nerves in that area. There are times where the pulses are not very obvious, the pain is still there but strangely, I feel disconnect with this pain at the mind level. What this means is that I feel the physical pain but not at the mental pain.

There is always a saying that my body is sick but my mind is not. At the mind level, we can control or eliminate our mental pain. Often, people commit suicide because of mental pain. The pain of losing their love ones, the pain of losing their money, the pain of losing their reputation are all pain at the mind level.

Perhaps just like the story in What is Pain? we can’t possibly live with a bad leg and wake up in pain everyday, we should do a check from day to day and amputate that ‘bad leg’ that is preventing us from living fully.

Or perhaps we should do a check to see if these are ‘real’ pain in the first place. Sometimes the bad leg is already gone but as long as we hold on to it mentally, we will always feel the pain. As what Karen had realized in the story, this applies to all undesirable things in our life.

We should have the courage to face our pain, amputate it when needed and tackle it at the mind level. Let’s hope for less pain in this world.

What is Pain?

Up till today, scientist has very little understanding of how pain works. Some scientists describe pain as “a complex mixture of emotions, culture, experience, spirit and sensation."

I came across a very interesting situation when watching a drama show.

A patient’s right foot was infected with flesh-eating bacteria. For the past few days, he had been living in agony and pain in his right foot. The infection was so bad that the doctor had no choice but to amputate his right leg, from the knee down.

After the operation, his right leg, from the knee down was gone. But for the next few days, the patient still complains about pain in his right leg.

There was once in the lift, he met with a very experience doctor. He told the doctor, there is still pain in his right leg. The doctor asked him to close his eyes, feel the pain and tell him where the pain is. He close his eyes and told the doctor, the pain is in his right foot, and he then uses his hands and try to touch his right foot where the pain was.

Of course, he couldn’t feel anything down there as his right foot had already been amputated. Shocked, he looked at the doctor. The doctor then explained to him that the painful part of his leg is already gone, but his mind has yet adjusted to the new situation.

Now comes the big question.

If his leg is gone but he is still feeling the same pain, is the pain in his leg or in his mind all this time?